embers of the Irish party came together,
and, wholly ignorant of the attitude taken by Mr. Gladstone, promptly and
with hardly a word of discussion re-elected their leader to his usual
post. The gravity of the unfortunate error (M155) committed in the failure
to communicate the private message to the whole of the nationalist
members, with or without Mr. Parnell's leave, lay in the fact that it
magnified and distorted Mr. Gladstone's later intervention into a
humiliating public ultimatum. The following note, made at the time,
describes the fortunes of Mr. Gladstone's letter:--

_Nov. 25._--I had taken the usual means of sending a message to Mr.
Parnell, to the effect that Mr. Gladstone was coming to town on
the following day, and that I should almost certainly have a
communication to make to Mr. Parnell on Tuesday morning. It was
agreed at my interview with his emissary on Sunday night (November
23) that I should be informed by eleven on Tuesday forenoon where
I should see him. I laid special stress on my seeing him before
the party met. At half-past eleven, or a little later, on that day
I received a telegram from the emissary that he could not reach
his friend.(275) I had no difficulty in interpreting this. It
meant that Mr. Parnell had made up his mind to fight it out,
whatever line we might adopt; that he guessed that my wish to see
him must from his point of view mean mischief; and that he would
secure his re-election as chairman before the secret was out. Mr.
McCarthy was at this hour also entirely in the dark, and so were
all the other members of the Irish party supposed to be much in
Mr. Parnell's confidence. When I reached the House a little after
three, the lobby was alive with the bustle and animation usual at
the opening of a session, and Mr. Parnell was in the thick of it,
talking to a group of his friends. He came forward with much
cordiality. "I am very sorry," he said, "that I could not make an
appointment, but the truth is I did not get your message until I
came down to the House, and then it was too late." I asked him to
come round with me to Mr. Gladstone's room. As we went along the
corridor he informed me in a casual way that the party had again
elected him chairman. When we reached the sunless little room, I
told him I was sorry to hear that the election was over, for I had
a communicati